Starting in October of 2005, the world-spanning city of Ravnica has been a favorite setting for players of Magic: the Gathering, playing host to seven expansion sets: Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, Dissension, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon’s Maze, and Guilds of Ravnica, as well as the next two sets for the upcoming year, Ravnica Allegiance and a heretofore unnamed third set. With nearly two thousand cards based on Ravnica and it being the first not Dominaria world to be visited three times, it’s clearly a fan favorite, so it’s no wonder that the people at Wizards of the Coast wanted to bridge the gap between their two very popular brands, Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, in this sourcebook that allows players of the latter to explore the rich cityscape and unique setting in Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica.

First thing off the bat, this book is beautiful, it mixes art from the cards with new fresh art on its 256 pages. The cover features the most amazing piece of art, a black human woman, with natural hair, in the regalia of the super intelligent (sometimes too much for their own good) magical scientists of the Izzet League conducting an experiment before her guildmaster Niv-Mizzet, the firemind and dracogenius. As a person of color myself, it is so inspiring to see someone who looks like people in my family, like me, in a position of prominence when the world of tabletop gaming is still pretty white and male.

There is a plethora of new content for Dungeons and Dragons players on Ravnica, include new races, like the elephantine Loxodons and mutated Simic Hybrids, two new class options in the enchantment focused Order Domain cleric and necromantic Circle of Spores druid, as well as dozens of items and monster stat blocks. In the 5E rules, guild membership comes in the form of a background, rather than the standard urchin, soldier, or merchant. In that way, being a member of the Boros Legion comes with a suite read more…

Sadly, our world lost Stan Lee recently. The world will never be the same because he entered it. While we are sad that he is gone, life does go on, and the amazing Marvel Universe has him to thank for all the wonderful characters he gave us. He did leave behind Spiderman and the X-Men.

Yes, Stan Lee was a national treasure. Yes, Professor Xavier knew how to move objects with his mind, he also knew how to get into a person’s heart and change it to be good. Hence Magneto’s helmet. Magneto wears a helmet to protect him from the massive power of Professor Xavier. He does this because a person who can go inside your head and change your quest to incur harm is more an enemy than someone who can fight you with the same weapon. Professor Xavier wields this power while being wheelchair bound. Not even paralysis can stop his powerful mind. Thus, not even death can end the epically powerful world of Stan Lee.

Lee gave us the new American Dream. The American Dream really is a spirit and not an object. He created characters who personified the battle of good and evil that rages in all of us. I always wanted to meet Stan Lee. I never did, but I still have him to thank for me being here.

I went into writing instead of the medical field because I couldn’t handle the vomiting. I have no issue with the other read more…

Since it’s release on October 26th, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been yet another massively popular addition to Netflix’s already powerful coven of shows. However, it would appear that the Temple of Satan is not a fan, having filed a $150 million dollar lawsuit against the streaming service and Warner Bros., claiming in the United States District Court in Manhattan, New York City, that they had copied several unique features of the Temple’s depiction of the occult deity in the statue featured in the show.

In Sabrina, the statue resides in the main area of the Academy of Unseen Arts, a magical school read more…

Here is the blurb for Renegade from Tales From The Kurtherian Universe, Book One.

Holi’s Savior, by ND Roberts

On the alien world Castellegia, brave young Holi fights for the survival of her ragged band of orphans. Who will save them from the green-eyed mutants who stalk the night? Justice calls upon Castellegia at the moment all is lost for Holi.

A story of strength, determination, and the softer side of everybody’s favorite benevolent dictator.

Game nights are great fun. Seeing your friends get together to quest and take down evil and play through your story of your own making can be a great way to escape real life, and we all know how badly that’s needed. That being said, all Game/Dungeon Masters or Storytellers know that running a game is not just fun, but is work as well. It is upon you, chiefly, to ensure the fun and entertainment of the group, and that can be a heavy burden to bear, even before you consider having to remember and adjudicate the rules. I know it sounds daunting. It scared me before I got started, but worry not! Here are some tips to remember to make your game day prep easier.

How to proceed

The fabled Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said it best: “no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force” which is to say, whatever you plan, assume your players are going to figure out a way to do something you didn’t prepare for. Here are three ways to try to handle this situation:

Overwrite: You could write out every possible outcome you can think of for the situations you put the players in.

All roads lead to Rome: make it so it ultimately doesn’t matter what your players choose, the result will be the same.

Underwrite: Have only a bare outline of what will happen and improvise the rest.

When I began DM’ing, I did the former, spending hours writing every permutation of the events of the session, which is not advisable, believe read more…